The present invention relates to shoe patches and, more particularly, to an improved shoe patch device and method of preserving and/or repairing shoes.
In recent years, there has been a dramatic resurgence in public recognition of the benefits derived from routine physical fitness activities with a vast number of the general public currently engaging in routine sport related activities such as jogging, tennis, racketball, basketball, and aerobics. This public resurgence has prompted an increased demand for more sophisticated sport shoes such as tennis shoes and the like, which typically are fabricated having a rubber or urethane sole and a fabric upper which are integrally molded together during the manufacture process. Although these more sophisticated sport shoes have proven generally suitable for their intended use, they possess inherent deficiencies which have detracted from their overall acceptance by the public.
Foremost of these deficiencies has been their relatively high initial cost which has been prohibitive to a large portion of the purchasing public. Further, to obtain optimum performance characteristics, these more sophisticated sport shoes have typically been prone to rapid deterioration and wear during use, often-times having an effective wear life of only a few months. In addition, due to these sport shoes typically being fabricated having a unitary molded sole and upper construction, repair of the same has been difficult, if not impossible, even by professional shoe repair personnel.
Although these cost and wear deficiencies have been recognized to a limited extent in the prior art, the solutions to date have comprised either awkward repair shoe tip attachments such as that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 1,536,204 issued to Garonski and U.S. Pat. No. 990,295 issued to Rosenblum, jell-like compounds adapted to fill voids in the rubber or urethane sole of the shoes, or molded urethane toe pieces formed to repair the toe portion of a shoe such as the Eternal Toe.sup.TM product manufactured by Runners Products Incorporated of Montgomery, Alabama.
Such prior art shoe tip attachments have typically been inapplicable for installation on sport shoes or alternatively have required professional shoe repairmen in applying the same to the sport shoe. In contrast, the jell-like compounds of the prior art have been diffcult to apply and have proven effective only in repairing the urethane or rubber sole of the shoe. Similarly, the molded urethane toe devices have been limited to precise locations upon the toe of the sport shoe with no provisions made for allowing repair of other stress points on the shoe. Additionally, all of the prior art devices typically have impaired the function or playing characteristics of the shoe and have been available only for repair and not for the preservation of the sport shoe.
Thus, there exists a substantial need in the art for an improved shoe patch and method of repairing and/or preserving shoes which is low-cost, readily mountable to differing locations upon the sport shoe, and which does not alter the function or playing characteristics of the sport shoe.